Cirie Fields made a name for herself in the Survivor history books from Day 1. While often considered one of the smartest strategists ever to play the game, we originally met her as the nurse and mother of three who self-identified as a couch potato but applied for the show after being inspired during the moment Jeff Probst always addresses the audience to come out and play before a commercial break.
Entering with the ultimate underdog potential, Cirie shot herself to legend status through brilliant gameplay, known to most fans as one of the best contestants to ever play and not win. With 4 seasons and an International game under her belt, she’s definitely coming into the anniversary season with something to prove and nothing to lose. She’s a Survivor icon and nothing can take that away. The only thing she has left to do now is win.
Cirie's quick Survivor stats
While we do not include Cirie’s recent participation in Australian Survivor: Australia v The World in her stats or history below in order to keep analytical comparisons of returning players strictly within the American version of Survivor, we do want to recognize that she made it to Day 15, earning herself a spot in the Final 4 before becoming the 7th member of the jury after losing a tie-breaking fire-making challenge.
Survivor Career:
- Survivor: Panama (4th place)
- Survivor: Micronesia (3rd place)
- Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains (17th place)
- Survivor: Game Changers (6th place)
Total Days Played: 121 days
Total Votes Against: 9 votes
Individual Immunity Challenges Won: 0
Individual Reward Challenges Won: 1
Hidden Immunity Idols Played: 0
Advantages Played: 0
Survivor: Panama
This 12th season of Survivor featured 16 contestants divided into tribes based on age and gender, but that wasn’t the only twist of the season. Exile Island officially returned, setting the start of its regular appearance within the show.
Cirie started as a member of the Casaya tribe, made up of the older women of the season (ages spanning 32-48). After her tribe lost the first immunity challenge, Cirie was at risk as one of the weaker physical players, but immediately demonstrated her powerful social skills, persuading the majority to go after someone else. She found herself with another target on her back for the same reason after the first tribe swap, but once again saved herself and earned a spot in the merge.
Once down to the Final Four, the two sets of allies left were coming for each other and—knowing a tied vote would lead to a fire-making challenge—Cirie had Aras Baskauskas teach her how to properly made fire before ultimately going up against Danielle DiLorenzo at Tribal Council. Unfortunately, Cirie lost the fire-making challenge making her the sixth member of the jury where she voted for Aras to win, helping to crown him as the Sole Survivor of the season.
But Cirie didn’t walk away empty handed. At the live reunion show she received the Fan Favorite Award, being voted the most liked player of the season by the viewers at home, winning her a brand new truck.
Survivor: Micronesia
The first "Fans vs. Favorites" season, Cirie found herself in a swing vote position early on in the Malakal (Favorites) tribe. She chose to move forward with the “Couples Alliance” consisting of Amanda Kimmel & Ozzy Lusth and Parvati Shallow & James Clement—who had previously been working as a tight-foursome—because she felt she would be able to strategically sway the couples more than she could Jonathan Penner’s alliance.
The Malakal tribe continued to lose, even through a tribe swap, but after overhearing a conversation about the Fans plan to take out the weakest players (including Cirie), she enlisted the targeted Fans into the Favorites alliance to take out the castaways coming after her and her allies. She ultimately made it to the merge along with her other four original Malakal alliance members.
But once merged, Cirie knew they had to take out the game’s biggest threat, Ozzy, at their first chance. She banded together the women, blindsiding Ozzy with a hidden immunity idol in his pocket, and initiating the iconic Black Widow Brigade, an all-female alliance that proceeded to target the men in the game, one right after another.
However, the last man standing, Erik Reichenbach, won immunity, forcing the women to vote out one of their own, before winning another immunity at Final Five when Cirie concocted one of the most memorable plans in Survivor history. She convinced Erik he needed to give up his immunity necklace as a sign of good faith and loyalty and in return she wouldn’t vote him out. He fell for the trap, gave up immunity, and the women collectively voted him out.
The original Black Widow Brigade alliance of Cirie, Parvati, and Amanda made it to the Final Three where they learned there would only be two players making it to Final Tribal Council. Cirie was voted out and became the 8th member of the jury, voting in favor of Parvati who took home the title of Sole Survivor for the season.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
For the 10-year anniversary, Survivor gathered ten former players known for their honorable style of playing and ten former players known for being more devious in their approach. Cirie returned as a member of the Heroes tribe where she reunited with her former Survivor: Micronesia allies Amanda and James.
The Heroes faced a series of losses at the beginning and while trying to take control of some votes, Cirie caught the attention of Survivor: Tocantins winner J.T. Thomas who felt her strategic gameplay was too strong. While she orchestrated a split vote against Colby Donaldson and Tom Westman, J.T. aligned with the two men to blindside Cirie, sending her home pre-merge with a 17th place finish. Her earliest exit, yet.
Survivor: Game Changers
As you can tell from the name, it was no surprise Cirie was invited back for her fourth season as a clear leader of Survivor gameplay. But the game wasn’t in her favor when she landed on the Nuku tribe with both Ozzy—who she’d previously blindsided—and J.T.—who had previously blindsided her. She attempted to align with the new school players, but she was already on the outs. Luckily, Nuku won both immunity challenges before Jeff announced a tribe switch.
Moving from two tribes into three, fate was on her side when only one member of the other starting tribe ended up in her new tribe, no longer leaving her on the bottom. She made amends with Ozzy, aligned with her original Nuku tribe, and they won all the following immunity challenges earning her a spot in the merge.
Post-merge, Cirie’s alliance continued to fluctuate as Sarah Lacina flipped to vote out Ozzy, but then flipped back. Cirie continued to use her coveted social skills to strategically stay in the know, with most of her allies taking the lead on votes, though she ensured she was always at the center of trust. After flipping, Sarah worked to gain back Cirie’s trust by letting her in on her Vote Steal advantage. In return, Cirie wanted to keep Sarah in the game as a shield and worked to blindside anyone gunning for her.
But when Sarah gave Cirie her Vote Steal as a sign of trust before Tribal Council—which Cirie promised to return to Sarah the next day—Cirie instead opted to use it to assure Sarah stayed in the game. However, Cirie didn’t read the rules of the advantage and only learned too late that it was non-transferable. Sarah reclaimed her advantage and used it to blindside Cirie’s true no. 1 ally, Michaela Bradshaw.
Sarah was furious with Cirie for calling out the advantage and forcing her to play it sooner than she wanted to, but when she learned Cirie’s intention of saving Sarah from Tai Trang’s confirmed blindside was real, she apologized, but it was too late. With everyone coming after each other, the following Tribal Council went down as one of the most chaotic in Survivor history.
Cirie, Tai, and Aubry Bracco went in voting for Sarah. Tai received two votes and Aubry received one. However, Tai played a hidden immunity idol for himself and another one for Aubry, leaving them immune. Sarah played the Legacy Advantage she’d previously been gifted, also giving her immunity. Of the two remaining men in the tribe, one won the immunity challenge, and the other also played an immunity idol. This left every person at Tribal Council immune except for Cirie.
In a landmark vote, Cirie was eliminated despite not having her name written down. She had her torch snuffed, finishing in sixth place—Jeff let her say the iconic, “the tribe has spoken”—and she became the 8th member of the jury. At Final Tribal Council, she voted for Sarah to win the $1 million and title of Sole Survivor, which she did in a landslide victory.
Survivor 50 predictions: How far will Cirie go?
With Cirie’s extensive history in the game, and everyone knowing exactly how strong of a social player she is, it would be surprising if she wasn’t an early target. Especially considering she has history with multiple other returning castaways—having previously played with Aubry Bracco, Coach Wade, Colby Donaldson, Ozzy Lusth, and Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick—we’ll either see old grudges come back in full force or our old school players will have to set aside their pasts to band together against the new era players.
I could also see a world in which some new era players enlist Cirie into their alliance under the guise of her taking them under her wing—similar to Michaela in Game Changers. They might think they’re tricking her into working with them to vote out the old school players before ultimately eliminating her themselves, but she’s much too smart to fall for that and would definitely see through their plan.
Either way, the only worlds in which I could see Cirie making it to the merge are if she ends up on a tribe with a fairly prominent winning streak or she works with the new era players.
Cirie Fields Survivor 50 player score
Cirie’s social game is clearly where her strength lies—playing 121 days and only having your name written down nine times is a testament to relationship building. The physical nature of challenges has never been her strong suit, but her determination and resilience have been a contributing factor to her bold strategy and risk-taking that truly defined an era.
And while she’s been known to make some unpredictable moves, at the end of the day, she will always rely on her ability to form bonds and manipulate them to fit into her strategy. That will keep her from ever being considered a true wildcard in the game.
Outwit (Social Game): 14/15
Outplay (Physical Game): 4/15
Outlast (Strategic Game): 12/15
Wildcard Factor: 3/5
Total Player Score: 33/50
We’ll see if her past prowess will lend to ultimate success, finally scoring her a win this time around, or if she’s destined to be one of the players that’s simply too good—too big of a known threat—to ever have a chance at winning. Survivor 50 premieres Wednesday, February 25 at 8/7c on CBS and Paramount +!